Interactive Read Aloud - Not Just for After Recess!An interactive read aloud is essential for how kids learn to read. The purpose of read aloud stories is to make children fluent readers who understand the text at a deep and meaningful level. Use great read aloud books to help you. If you want to improve reading skills, deepen comprehension, and get your kids reading a lot, then you need to be reading aloud. This is one of the best reading comprehension programs. CAUTION: You do not have to make every read aloud an interactive one. Sometimes you need to read aloud just for the pleasure of reading. Use this powerful tool wisely. Read about why reading for pleasure is critical in literacy development. What is an Interactive Read Aloud?An interactive read aloud is comprised of a series of purposeful activities that is really reciprocal teaching. These are:An interactive read aloud is not making your students sit at their desks and not say a word while you read from a book. While you are reading aloud, let them sit in a circle, on the floor, allow them to discuss with each other and you at key points in the story, let them ask questions and encourage them to point out interesting parts that are meaningful to them!
1. Previewing the Book Previewing the book is the first step of an interactive read aloud. It means to look at the elements of the text before reading it. During the preview time I begin scaffolding the students prior knowledge to those elements. This means taking what the students already know and helping them to use it to make sound predictions about the text, and yes, there are right and wrong ways to predict. Do not allow your students to think it is okay to make ridiculous predictions. Each prediction should be based on what they see or hear in the preview. Always ask why they made the prediction. I follow the same procedure each time I preview a book with students, regardless of the genre: 2. Scaffolding on Prior Knowledge Scaffolding on prior knowledge means that the teacher is helping students to make predictions and connections to what they already know. This is critical for deep comprehension. Think about it: if I was asked to read a book about biochemical engineering, I can guarantee you that I would understand very little of it. Why? I have nothing to draw upon to help it make sense to me, and it's certainly not because I'm dumb, thank you very much. And neither are your students. They need you to find something they can relate to in order to make concise, accurate predictions and connections to the text. Doing an interactive read aloud correctly means you are making it real and accessible for them through scaffolding. This also makes using read aloud books a greatTier 1 Response To Intervention. 3. Emphasizing Elements of the Story When you choose a book to use as an interactive read aloud, be aware of the elements of the story. Elements of a story are generally concerned with setting, characters, and the plot (problem and solution) in the primary grades. If you are working with older students, you then need to address exposition and climax, as well as introducing the terms conflict and resolution instead of problem and solution. This is also the appropriate place to discuss what readers would expect to find within certain genres. These elements should be discussed through predictions, scaffolding and as you read the story. For example: Elements of Historical Fiction Interactives: Elements of a Story is a great site to visit for support on teaching story elements. 4. Asking Purposeful Questions Really consider the questions you ask the students and if they are of value. Realize that children usually don't like stopping in a story to discuss things, so be sure what you are asking has meaning to it. Gear your questions towards a specific comprehension skill you are working on, such as inferencing or recalling a sequence of events. If you can't think of a purposeful question, then just keep reading. You do not have to ask a question on every page! Purposeful questions look like this: 5. Summarizing the Story Never, ever, just close the book, say, "The end," and be done. While this is your final step in an interactive read aloud, it is not, "The End!" Summarizing the story is essential to solidify your students' comprehension of the text. How you will summarize will be different according to the grade level you teach. For primary students, I use a simple chart that we complete together. Click the link below to see the chart I use and instructions on how to use it. I also use this chart during guided writing to teach the children how to write a story. Primary Summary Chart for Interactive Read Aloud Use an interactive read aloud to get your children reading and develop powerful literacy tools. This is the best way I know of (and it is evidence based) to teach critical comprehension skills. Great Read Aloud Books
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